1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a catamenial device comprising an outer layer of fibrous cellulose untreated or treated material and an inner layer partially or completely comprising an absorbent, microbistatic fibrous material.
2. Statement of the Related Art
Catamenial tampons, and the like, comprising an absorbent fibrous material and which are used to absorb bodily secretions such as menstrual fluid, blood, and urine are well known. It is also well known that these secretions decompose after only a short time under the effect of ubiquitous microbes, accompanied by the emission of an undesirable odor. Furthermore, the growth of pathogenic microbes may present serious health risks. There have been many attempts to provide sanitary hygiene aids of absorbent fibrous materials with a deodorizing and/or microbistatic finish. Various microbicides and deodorants suitable for suppressing body odor have been proposed for this purpose.
It has also been proposed to use copper compounds for finishing fibrous material used for sanitary hygiene aids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,632 (and corresponding German application No. 31 35 410) describe a catamenial absorbent pad of cellulose fibers or cotton wool which is sprayed with a solution of a copper salt or is produced from fibers or cotton wool treated with such a solution. The salts are copper borate, sulfate, chloride, formate, oxalate, tartrate, citrate, lactate, and especially, acetate.
Chemical Abstracts, 69:78373t (1968), relating to an article in Russian by Snezhko, et al., discloses the partial carboxymethylation of a cotton fabric followed by immersion in aqueous AgNO.sub.3 or Cu(OAc).sub.2 solution, which resulted in fabrics containing chemically bound Ag or Cu. Such fabrics are disclosed as not supporting the growth of B. subtilis 633, B. cereus var mycoides, or S. aureus 209, even after 30 launderings. The immersion of the fabric in AgNO.sub.3 or Cu(OAc).sub.2 without prior carboxymethylation failed to impart any lasting bacteristatic properties to the fabric.
Published European patent application No. 19,371 describes a blood-coagulating absorbent material which consists of a water-swellable, covalently crosslinked anionic polyelectrolyte, for example crosslinked carboxymethyl cellulose, which is treated with transition metal ions, such as with copper ions. Disclosed salts for treatment include copper chlorides, nitrates, sulphates, and acetates in one process, and copper carbonates, oxides or hydroxides in a second process. However, materials such as these are not usually fibrous or cannot readily be converted into fibers, wadding or nonwovens. It is disclosed that the materials may be processed with a fibrous carrier as a support when used in hygiene aids. Both the manufacture and also the processing of this material are difficult.
Microbistatically modified cellulose fibers, at least some of which may be utilizable in catamenial tampons, are described in Modified Cellulosics by T. L. Vigo in the chapter "Antibacterial Fibers", Academic Press, New York (1978) at pages 260-284.
Laminated catamenial tampons are disclosed in various patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,841 discloses a catamenial tampon which has an absorbent core and a closed cell foam sheath closed at its outer end. U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,605 discloses a laminated catamenial tampon with a central absorbent core which is a cup-shaped. U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,035 discloses a catamenial tampon with an outer absorbent cover over an expanding core. U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,549 discloses a catamenial tampon with a resilient outer sheath surrounding an absorbent, relatively rigid, fibrous core. None of the foregoing patents apprears to disclose a chemically treated core or outer layer.
German published patent application No. 14 91 170 (Derwent No. 72911) whose inventor is A. A. Burgeni, and for which an unidentified U.S. patent is believed to have issued, discloses a catamenial tampon having a core of fine count fibers surrounded by fiber layers of increasingly coarser count, with an annular sheath of cellulose fibers surrounding the whole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,409 discloses an encapsulated catamenial tampon whose core is resiliently compressed polyurethane which may have the physical addition of a deodorant, disinfectant, medicament, etc., and whose outer layer is a perforated gelatin capsule.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,055 discloses a catamenial tampon having an absorbent core, nonwoven outer layer, and a medication in powdered or crystalline form between the two. In another embodiment, the outer layer itself xay be impregnated.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,622 discloses a catamenial tampon comprising coplanar multiple plies of thin absorbent tissue paper in which the end opposite the insertion end is impregnated with non-toxic, waste fluid repellant compositions.
The use of microbicidal and deodorizing finishes in catamenial tampons has been attended above all by the disadvantage that direct contact of the microbicide or of the microbicidally finished fibrous material with the sensitive vaginal mucosa can give rise to undesirable inflammation and, above all, to harmful disturbance of the natural vaginal bacterial flora with all the unhealthiness which that causes.